


Stranger in This Town

by Llama



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Flash Fic, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-07
Updated: 2014-01-07
Packaged: 2018-01-07 21:20:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1124525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llama/pseuds/Llama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek doesn't know how any of this works.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stranger in This Town

**Author's Note:**

> Written as flash fic for Full Moon Ficlet's 'Family' prompt. Title borrowed from 'Letting the Cables Sleep' by Bush. Additional inspiration from my round one Trope Bingo card (Band AU).

It took them so long to get Derek to tour that they could almost have sold the first one as a comeback, but he's never regretted waiting until the time was right. Now it's a few weeks he looks forward to each year, something they always make time for, whatever else is going on in their lives. He's still not completely comfortable being away from home, away from the life he's built there from the ashes of the past, but that life has offshoots now, and the tour is his opportunity to see them all, check on them properly. 

He even gets to flex his alpha muscles over them all again, because he sets the schedule, and he loves that they all fall into line, even though they don't really have to.

Yeah, they humor him, but he's not going to let them know he knows it.

He's learned over the years that they need a little time to cut loose first. One nighters without too much downtime between them, chance to party a little, catch up on the first round of gossip, share photos they haven't shown everyone yet. Then a big city over the second weekend. For two nights they play to their biggest crowds, do a rushed round of interviews and stumble into the inevitable impromptu signings. It's fun, but tiring, and right on schedule they're almost back to earth, the first rush of freedom over, and their thoughts already turning back to family. To home.

 

The Saturday night at the halfway point, that's Derek's favourite part. He picks a different city each time, somewhere he doesn't know. He doesn't get much chance for sightseeing – he and Erica are the most well-known faces of the band, and it's unfair but they get the lion's share of the attention – but he sees enough, takes a couple of snaps to send home before they're bogged down with interviews that usually take them right up to the show. 

It's afterwards, that's the part he likes best. There's something soothing about the wide expanse of stage when everyone's gone home. Even with Boyd's ever-increasing stacks of amplifiers and keyboards, there are spaces filled only with scuffed tape marks and trailing cables, and the ghosts of performers long gone. 

They all know it's Derek's ritual, spending time mooching around the stage, tidying and thinking, so they only hang around long enough to let him _know_ they're going to leave him alone. It makes him smile, the way they do it.

“Lydia sends her love,” Erica says, the first to head out as usual. They both know Jackson won't bother to pass it on. “Don't stay up too late, sweetie,” she adds, and blows him a kiss.

 _”Sweetie_ ,” Boyd grumbles. “She never calls me stuff like that.” But he gives Derek a one-armed, manly hug. “Pass it on when you call him,” he says, then picks his way over the mass of cables and boxes after Erica.

“Beth drew you a wolf,” Isaac says, showing Derek a mess of brown and black scribbles on his phone. Derek loves it, of course, because Beth's blatantly his favourite not-niece, just like he's her favourite not-uncle. “She's gonna be an artist when she grows up.”

“An _awesome_ artist,” Scott adds, grinning besottedly at his own phone. “You won't believe how much she's grown, Derek. Just wait till you see her.”

“The twins take art classes with some guy who worked with Dali,” Jackson says loftily, and it's so predictable that Derek hides his smile in the shadow of Boyd's keyboard edifice, tidying up the stray cables to keep himself busy. He doesn't need to see Scott and Isaac to know they just rolled their eyes.

Jackson's the exception, as always. He doesn't come over to Derek, not even when Scott and Isaac's chatter fades into the distance and it's just the two of them. He's too busy fussing over his guitar, getting it packed away just how he likes it. He can take forever about it: or at least as long as Derek is prepared to make him wait.

“It was a good show,” Derek tells him softly, because Jackson always needs to hear that. The tension in Jackson's shoulders eases visibly with the verdict, and he lets Derek squeeze his shoulders from behind, even leans back into him for a moment.

“Yeah,” Jackson breathes out, and the smile he gives Derek is real when he slings the case over his shoulder and sets off through the darkened auditorium. It's pointless for him to try to avoid people that way, because everyone's known for years that he avoids using the stage door, but Derek's not about to call him on it. They all have their little habits, and Derek more than most.

In the silence he leaves behind, Derek makes his call. “Hey,” he says when it's picked up, and the word echoes breathily around the dusty space.

“Hey yourself,” Stiles laughs, sounding far away with the echo on the line. “You're on YouTube already, but all the comments are about Erica's boobs.”

“Liar,” Derek snorts. He's pretty sure Stiles hasn't even had chance to look yet. “We blew them away tonight. I thought Isaac was possessed at one point, and Boyd was amaz--”

“Not as amazing as you,” Stiles says from behind him, and Derek turns, startled into a laugh.

“How did you--” he wonders, but only for a moment. “Scott and Isaac,” he says, shaking his head.

“Yeah, they let me in.” Stiles shrugs. “I know I'm a few days early, but... surprise?”

“I'll give you a surprise,” Derek says, and pushes him up against Boyd's amp stacks. He hopes there's nobody still out there in the auditorium, but if there is, they can hang around at their own risk. He has his hands on Stiles for the first time in two weeks, and he doesn't intend to hold back.

 

Tomorrow night, after the show, they'll start the last leg of the tour. First they'll head out east to visit Lydia, then down to the farm where Allison and her father are busy running things while the boys are away. Isaac shacking up with Scott and Allison caused a massive scandal back in the day, but everyone's pretty much over it now, even Chris. This afternoon they actually made it through an interview session without being asked how it works by some spotty wannabe reporter who's more interested in adding some color to his own fantasies than hearing how great it is to have an extra pair of hands when you're bringing up three kids.

Derek doesn't know how _any_ of this works. He has no idea how this bunch of former teenage misfits somehow ended up with one ridiculously successful band, three packs, five kids, and an apparently infinite number of inter-breeding gerbils between them. He's still frankly mystified how he ended up in a relationship with one of them, but he suspects it's the same reason he never wins any argument with Stiles.

The one thing he does know, is that he couldn't ask for a better family than this.


End file.
